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Here is some more info, D3 year specific. It appears that the lane assist and lane departure warning systems were optioned beginning In 07'. The option would be available on A8, A8L, and S8 versions. I have park assist on my S8, It did not come with the optioned lane assist.
Quick view at one with lane assist, there will be a 4" square pad under where the front license would go. I believe that is for adaptive cruise control, which is part of the package AFAIK.

See, I saw a 2008 or 2007 brochure that listed adaptive cruise as a separate option from the technology package. I am aware of the square under the license plate, that's a great tell. And for 2009, I know that these options were grouped together so if you can ID the square, you'll know you have the technology package and all of the assists.

I like the prospect of an S8, but given that none of the ones I can find from 2007 have the square and NONE of them have ventilated seats because it was not available (grr), I've set my sights on an A8.

I'm actually looking at a D4 now that I found in Atlanta for around $38K that has the technology items. It's higher mileage (around 80K), but the service and maintenance records are impeccable - the owner clearly knew they drove a lot and made sure that the thing was inspected and taken care of every 10K miles.

It didn't come out on the D3 in the US until the facelift, meaning no earlier than 2008.

On the other hand... I use and like adaptive cruise compared to not having it. Allows more cruise use in built up highway traffic. Its easy to go fast in the very smooth D3, and that is a way to keep things in check. Wife's Q5 has side assist (as distinct from lane change). I find it of limited use. Some, but I tend to know what is near me...and view the current example of the Mazda commercial featuring it with the distracted guy a classic example of someone who should be off the road entirely. Given right rear D3 blindspot, side assist might be some help. Bigger one though is the rear camera. I don't have in the 2006 D3; std. from 2007 and up. Have it in the 2013 Q5. It's hard to back up a big D3 and the dumb too big headrests and high trunk deck lid just make it worse. Bumper sensors help some, but camera is a big change. I would put camera higher on the safety list than side assist, and even further ahead of lane assist. That translates to at least a 2007 if you are looking at safety and gizmo stuff, which also gets you from the earlier timing belt 4.2 to the slightly more powerful and frugal FSI later one (or always FSI w/ S8).

I've had the reverse camera in my cars since 2005 and I will never, ever be without it again. Absolutely the best feature introduced in cars ever.

I believe the DOT is mandating it for all cars sold in the US by 2017 or 2018. I couldn't agree more with that choice.

As for blind spot and lane departure, I really only care about blind spot assist. I have that on my current car for the last three years it's saved me a lot of "oh crap" moments. I still turn and look, but I don't have to crane over. The LED are on the A-pillar in that car and it's second nature now. In heavy traffic it makes a huge difference in my driving pleasure.

I've got both a D3 and D4 picked out now. Both are in budget. I am leaning towards the D4 however: it's equipped a bit better.

2009 S8 with Technology Package has Adaptive Cruise Control + Lane Assist + Side Assist grouped together, as mentioned. Not sure if heating steering wheel is included in this package.

The ACC works poorly in rain, the sensor gets blocked throwing a warning and turning off the entire cruise control system. In dry environments it works quite well. In a perfect world, the driver would be able to use ACC or switch to traditional cruise control when the sensor is blocked. Alas.

The Side Assist is a great tool, but does not replace physically checking the blindspot areas.

The Lane Assist feature is always off unless my wife is driving the car. It picks up jersey walls and painted over lines in the road sometimes.

Hard to argue against the D3 from the looks perspective, though. Good luck!

Side Assist will cause the Valentine One radar detector to alert, it can be coded out by turning off option J for POP, but has a side effect of still alerting on mute (Valentine Research is unwilling to fix this).

Alternately, just turning Side Assist off isn't enough, the car must be shut down and restarted.

If you buy the W12 you will get ventilated seats, and ACC. Rear view camera is an easy retrofit. Even side assist is a fairly easy retrofit. Lane assist I see a pretty pointless on the D3, since it just vibrates the wheel, whereas the D4 will give slight corrections to the wheel.

Side Assist will cause the Valentine One radar detector to alert, it can be coded out by turning off option J for POP, but has a side effect of still alerting on mute (Valentine Research is unwilling to fix this).

Alternately, just turning Side Assist off isn't enough, the car must be shut down and restarted.

I heard of this issue. Heard it didn't really affect the 9500ix. That is the only set of features I didn't have on my W12 as it was a 2007. Lane departure warning is useless IMO, the blind spot monitoring actually is nice. Would come in handy in my S5 as it's a coupe and difficult to see the blindspot without fully turning around. In both A8's I never had any issue seeing my blindspot though. It would be a difficult car to backup without the parking sensors though.

Have that set up with the 2013 Q5 and side assist. Zero resulting issues, and both the car and the detector still work just fine and with no falsing and side assist fully enabled. POP seems to be some gone by the wayside thing anyway; at least here in CA no real world LEO relevance.